RANDY MEYER
and 15 divisional races, but a bulk of his biggest
accomplishments have come with other drivers
in the seat. Collectively, his drivers have posted
35 NHRA event wins.
This season, the Randy Meyer Racing driver
roster is a who’s-who list of rising stars, including
Meyer’s daughters, Megan and Rachel. Megan,
26, is a two-time Central Region champion, a
perennial national championship contender and
is currently tied with Randi Lyn Shipp as the
winningest women in the Lucas Oil Series with
seven national event wins. Rachel, 24, won her
first regional event in 2018 running a limited
schedule and expects to run more races this sea-
son. Nataas, 22, is off to a hot start after winning
the Four-Wide Nationals at Charlotte and the
Columbus regional race. Matt Sackman, 26, won
in his Top Alcohol Dragster debut with the team
last season and started this year with a runner-up
finish at the NHRA Winternationals. Caruso,
21, would go on to defeat Nataas in the Norwalk
semifinals and then take down Will Smith in the
final round to win her first NHRA Wally in just
her second start in the class.
Together, Meyer’s drivers have won five races in
11 consecutive final-round appearances this season,
including the Norwalk race. After this interview,
Meyer and company would go on to add another
two runner-up finishes to that total, as Rachel
would reach the JEGS All-Stars final round in her
first appearance at the prestigious specialty race
held during the NHRA Route 66 Nationals. The
next day, Megan went to the final round.
Your team has had an incredible start to
the year – six wins in 11 consecutive final
rounds. What does it take to reach that kind
of consistency and performance?
Well, it all starts with the work that we did over
the winter this year in the shop. A year ago, we got
behind because we redid both cars and did a bunch
of work on the chassis a year ago and focused on
that. We got a little behind with the motor program,
so this year we spent all winter – every day but two
days – working on our motor program and getting
our motors up where they need to be and getting
our clutch program a lot better.
It’s a combination of multiple things, but the
work that we did this winter shows up at the race-
track, and that’s where a lot of people missed the
boat. They take the winter off or think it’s vacation
time or whatever. For us, it’s an opportunity to
go through everything with a fine-toothed comb
and tweak everything.
Also, you’ve got to have good people and I’m
fortunate to have really good crew people and
I’ve got drivers that have been doing a better job
this year than last year. We lost a lot of races on
holeshots last year, so the drivers are doing a lot
better on lights. It’s just about getting confidence
built in the drivers and having them do their job.
It’s been a team effort to where my guys have done
good, we’ve had good parts and we’ve gone down
the racetrack almost every single run. We’re not al-
ways trying to be the fastest car, but we’re trying to
always go A to B and gather data and just tweak it,
and we’ve been very fortunate to be able to do that.
You just celebrated 40 years in drag racing.
You’ve been able to consistently adapt and
grow in the sport, and now you have one of
the top programs out here. What have you
done to continuously adapt and step up
your game?
When I started my business (Meyer Truck Center),
I started out real slow and small and every year I
just tried to add to improve what I had. I’ve done
AFTER WINNING THREE
CONSECUTIVE RACES -
INCLUDING THE PRESTIGIOUS
NHRA GATORNATIONALS
- IN FOUR FINAL-ROUND
APPEARANCES TO START THE
2019 SEASON, MEGAN MEYER IS
FACING HER BEST SHOT AT THE
COVETED LUCAS OIL SERIES
NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP.
94 | D r a g
I l l u s t r a t e d | DragIllustrated.com
Issue 146